Heat down Marlies in series opener

Abbotsford Heat goalie Danny Taylor faces Milwaukee Admirals.

Photograph by: Steve Bosch
, PNG

Call it a winning recipe. Abbotsford Heat head coach Troy Ward did. His team got scoring from a rookie forward, a sophomore defenceman and a grizzled veteran, to go along with stellar goaltending from Danny Taylor.

All totaled, the Heat fed off an energetic start to score a 3-1 road victory over the Toronto Marlies to take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven American Hockey League Western Conference semifinal. The win makes it 11 in a row for the Fraser Valley minor league franchise, dating back to the regular season.

“I thought he had a really good start again,” said Ward in a phone interview following the game.

“I think that’s kind of been the recipe of success here, at least in the post-season. I thought we had good push in the first period. I thought we played within our structure. We did a nice job. Pretty typical, I think, this time of year as games wore and tension gets higher, whether it’s a one-goal or a two-goal lead, obviously there’s going to be a moment when your team doesn’t play well.

“Again, we didn’t have some good pushes there in the third, we sat back and played a little bit on our heels.”

Chris Breen’s first of the playoffs at 8:17 of the second period proved to be the winning goal. Now in his second full season with the Heat, Breen’s goal, his first since Dec. 29, came just over two minutes after Abbotsford successfully killed off a J.P. Testwuide minor for tripping.

Rookie Max Reinhart, the Calgary Flames third-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft who joined the Heat after the Kootenay Ice were eliminated from the WHL playoffs, opened the scoring late in the first period.

Reinhart was the beneficiary of some good work around the net from linemates Greg Nemisz and Hugh Jessiman, eventually lifting a loose puck over a sprawled out Ben Scrivens for his first goal of the Heat’s playoff run.

“He’s been great,” said Jessiman of Reinhart.

“He’s a confident kid, he’s been humble. He carries himself well and obviously I’ve sort of been along his wing this whole time and I’ve just enjoyed playing with him.”

Reinhart now has three goals and four points in two games, regular season and playoffs, against the Marlies since being recalled from the WHL.

“I think we’ve just had really good pressure on the puck and if you do that, more often than not, you’re going to produce and right now we are,” said Reinhart.

“That’s kind of all in the past. I think [the Marlies] will start keying in on our line a little bit more and being a little bit more aware of where we are. It’s going to be a lot tougher, I expect, come Game 2 and it’s a challenge that I know I’m ready for and want.”

Guillaume Desbiens scored the insurance marker into an empty net with 1:21 left in the third period.

His first goal of these playoffs, Desbiens slid the puck into a wide open cage from around the center ice red line. It wasn’t at all pretty, but what a goal it turned out to be, as the Heat managed to withstand almost 20 minutes of pressure from a Marlies team desperate for the equalizer.

Toronto cut Abbotsford’s two-goal lead in half just 1:27 into the third period. Matt Frattin neatly deflected home a Joe Colborne centering pass to give the Marlies life.

They went on to outshoot the Heat 15-5 in the final frame, and 32-29 overall in the game. Taylor, making his fourth start in net of these playoffs in place of Leland Irving, was sensational in the final period.

His biggest stop came off Ryan Hamilton in the late stages of the period. After giving up a rebound off a sharp-angled shot, Taylor positioned himself perfectly for the second opportunity, taking Hamilton’s shot right in the crest of the jersey and not allowing a third chance.

“I thought Danny did a nice job,” said Ward. “I thought alongside him, in front of him as a team, I thought we allowed Danny to see a lot of pucks. And I thought we did a nice job of not allowing them second and third chances around our net.

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